Monday, February 25, 2019

For the Protection of Minors: Heads of Vatican Offices meet

The interim Director of the Holy See Press Centre provided information to journalists today concerning the follow-up meeting that took place today in the wake of the Meeting for the Protection of Minors.


Declaration of Alessandro Gisotti
Interim Director of the Holy See Press Centre

From 9:00am to 1:00pm today (3:00am to 7:00am EST) in the Sala Bologna at the Vatican Apostolic Palace, there was an Inter-dicasterial meeting held.  The focus of this meeting was the ongoing fight against child abuse.  This meeting is the first concrete effect of the Meeting on the Protection of Minors in the Church which concluded yesterday. 

At the meeting, together with some Superiors of the Secretariat of State and the Heads of Dicasteries who are particularly involved in this topic, members of the Organizing Committee and the Moderator of the Meeting, Father Federico Lombardi, SJ focused on the development of the next steps, the initial reactions to the Meeting and the necessary follow up.

First of all, unanimous focus was placed upon what is needed as a result of this Meeting, which was strongly desired by Pope Francis.  It was also pointed out that this event must now be followed up by concrete measures as has strongly been requested by the People of God.  In this context, the fundamental principles that inspire the documents and task forces, which were announced in the Press Conference addressing the Meeting were illustrated.  These initiatives - it has been affirmed - will have to be communicated in the clearest, most timely and detailed way possible.

In the discussions that followed, the Leaders of the Dicasteries reaffirmed their commitment to follow the example of Pope Francis in the fight against abuses.  The accent was placed on the need to listen to the victims as a starting point for this commitment.  Other points raised included: greater involvement of the laity in this initiative and the need to invest in training and prevention using reality and consolidated experience in this field.

Finally, the progress of the follow-up to this Meeting should be verified with Inter-dicasterial meetings in the name of synodality and synergy.

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